‘The butterfly effect’ is quite a well-known scientific theory. Basically, in a descriptive way, it claims that a tornado is being influenced by minor perturbations such as a distant butterfly flapping its wings several weeks earlier. The theory has been popularised by its uses outside its original domain of weather predictions and even made it into popular culture with the…

I’m going to tell you a soppy story, so get your hankies ready – just in case. Having worked for ten years as a priest in Poland I arrived in Scotland fourteen years ago completely burned out and seriously considering my future in the job. It was no one’s fault; it was the result of a well-intentioned but unbalanced pastoral…

Packing my cases for a trip is one of the chores I hate most. I like travelling light, but usually, I have to take more stuff than I personally would like to, and I end up with a case just a few milligrams short of the airline’s allowance and with hand-baggage pulling my arm out of its socket. I suppose…

A prominent politician, campaigning in the Brexit referendum in 2016 declared: ‘I think the people of this country have had enough of experts.’ It earned him a certain infamy in some circles and the label of a populist. A couple of years later, when the current pandemic struck, the very same politician insisted – as a member of the British…

I must confess that I am not a petrolhead. I’m not interested in cars beyond their usability. I used to like driving but that stopped many years ago. In other words, I guess that I am a car dealer’s nightmare incarnate – as I recently realised again when I went to buy a new car. My requirements regarding a car…